The Ruby Airship
This YA Victorian Steampunk (airship, night goggles, corset of wonders, gaslights) melodrama sequel to The Diamond Thief finds talented circus performer and reformed thief Remy working in a London East End theater. After an exciting opening rescue, jewel thefts begin to occur. After a young friend from Remy’s past, Yannick, shows up, she decides to return with him to her circus life and best friend in France. This occurs, despite growing attraction to the young police inspector Thaddeus Rec, with whom she had her last adventure. Remy and Yannick leave the warehouse abode that houses a spectacular unfinished airship.
Fellow boarder, the street smart urchin J, is also a mechanical whiz. He fires up the paired airship and together he and a suspicious Thaddeus sail for France, a place full of secrets where an evil count is up to no good. By the end, all villains are unmasked, secrets are revealed, and the world is (surely temporarily) safe once more.
Gosling’s wonderful imagination sparks well-wrought action sequences, and the developing relationship between the spunky Remy and her young Sherlock Holmes-like copper will surely have young readers coming back for more adventures.
